The lines between television and the Internet have been blurring so long I hereby no longer define television as a device which sits in your living room, but as a medium that can be played anywhere. I can play television on any device I choose. I have come not to be thankful that the shows I see on traditional television networks are available online, but to expect it – and when they are not, I am shocked, then angry.
I can view television on my LG cellphone, my Apple iPhone, my HP netbook, my Dell Desktop. I can play TV on the Internet through a network’s website such as ABC.com, NBC.com, or CBS.com, or through aggregate networks like Hulu.com. My favorite, by far though is on Netflix using their instant viewing feature. My wife now watches more shows on Netflix than on our XP Media Center PC, which saves shows from cable television.
Wired Magazine ran an article April 2007 entitled, “The TV Is Dead. Long Live the TV”. The gist is that, “TV is evolving into something new and hardly recognizable to generations raised on its earlier incarnations.” This evolution is more of a time-and-space separation. Where and what we watch is no longer coupled with a specific device, location, or time of day. But what does this do to the previous culture we had whereby office cooler or dinner table talk revolved around the happenings of a popular show? The term “popular” is now somewhat irrelevant. You might even go as far to say that going forward, markets won’t exist, only niches and micro-niches.
In the photo you can see me pointing out “proof” that Snuffaluffagus exists. This is a sort of inside-joke between peers of my generation who grew up watching Sesame Street back when Big Bird was the only one who could see “Snuffy.” This was also back when the Cookie Monster actually was allowed to eat cookies, but both have changed. Nowadays, are there enough children watching Sesame Street to allow for such inside-jokes? This isn’t a problem, per se, but just a reflection of our times. You might even say, “The Market is Dead. Long Live the Market.”